Explore Crossrail by Drone and Timelapse

After three years of non-stop digging, the tunnelling for Crossrail is finally complete. And while passengers won’t be riding through them for another three years, Transport for London (TfL) has sent down a fleet of drones and timelapse cameras to give us a much better feel for what’s been happening down there.

Work started on Crossrail back in 2009, but the tunnel-digging wasn't commenced until 2012, when the first of eight giant machines started burrowing into the earth. At peak, the machines were churning up to 100 metres of new tunnel per week, while they dodged their way around the existing Tube- and sewer-lines.

The video above mixes drone flights through the tunnels with timelapse videos of the construction to give some small appreciation of the scale of the work being done. In total, 26 miles of new tunnels was bored. Last week saw the final breakthrough, with ‘Victoria’ crashing through the clay into the cavern that will become the Farringdon Crossrail station by 2018. [YouTube]